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Grey's Anatomy: Season 5 - Dream A Little Dream of Me (2)

Review by Jack Foley

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IndieLondon Rating: 2 out of 5

INDIELONDON singles out notable episodes from current television series for stand-alone reviews. On this occasion we take a look at the second part of Grey’s Anatomy season 5 opener Dream A Little Dream of Me (as aired on Living TV on Thursday, January 29, 2009).

What’s the story? Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) discover the morning-after side of their renewed relationship; a military doctor (Kevin McKidd) arrives at the hospital; and the chief learns that Seattle Grace’s national rankings have slipped.

Was it any good? Sadly, no. Part two of fifth season opener Dream A Little Dream of Me was officially where Grey’s Anatomy crossed the line into being crap.

At this point, episodes of Srubs carry more dramatic impetus and more medical realism than this sorry excuse for a supposedly top-rated show. But why so scathing?

Well, take the final, parting shot as a prime example. Izzie (Katherine Heigl) had become so upset with Alex (Justin Chambers) for bringing another woman home, that she sought solace in the arms of Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). THERE’S JUSTONEPROBLEM…. Denny is dead!

Hence, viewers got a supposedly romantic fantasy sequence in which Izzie got out of a lift in a lavish ball-gown to be greeted by her late beloved Denny. The two then walked off arm in arm. It says something about how much this show has become divorced from reality that it thinks it can bring an episode to a close in this way. Can there be many viewers who think this isn’t a tad stupid as a plot device? (Especially since we’re told Denny will keep returning!).

Book-ending this fantasy sequence at the start of the episode, meanwhile, was another completely ludicrous flash-forward to the future, in which Cristina (Sandra Oh) envisaged seeing herself and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) old, grey and bickering over the best way to carve a turkey… all while Cristina was impaled in the snow by a piece of ice. It was laughably bad viewing and writing.

In between, there was the odd moment of notable drama. A case involving three middle-aged women and their injured husbands did bring in some much needed levity and benefited from the mature, restrained performances of guest stars Kathy Baker and Bernadette Peters – the latter proving especially effective as a woman coming to terms with her husband’s infidelity.

Kevin McKidd – last seen, ironically, locking horns with Patrick Dempsey in summer movie Made of Honour – also brought some much-needed grit as an army medic who helped enable a patient to walk again, and tended to Cristina. But he, sadly (and perhaps wisely for the actor), turned down the offer of a permanent job.

Oh, and Chief Webber (James Pickens Jr.) finally grew a set of balls and dressed down each and every one of his members of staff for the complacency and laziness that has allowed his hospital to slip to 12th in the ratings. Maybe, just maybe, a similar show revival can be expected based on his warning that things were about to change.

I doubt it, however, as the writer’s obsession with the character’s personal lives, and their dreary on-off, on again romances continues to take centre stage.

Meredith, for instance, continued to ponder about moving in with Derek throughout the episode, despite being told by Cristina that she no longer wanted to hear any of it. And yet we’re still no closer to a resolution, or even progress, in their drawn-out affair.

Lexie (Chyler Leigh), meanwhile, continued to suppress her feelings for George (TR Knight)… but is the latest in a seemingly endless line of show characters prepared to spend large chunks of every episode gazing longingly into the one they love’s eyes.

If only real life could be quite so McDreamy… especially when dealing with life and death!